November 2012 Archives

In April 1984, James Harper pleaded guilty to one count of selling and delivering confidential materials relating to national security. In exchange for his cooperation, eight other counts were dropped.

Along with immunity provisions, the plea agreement included a section stating that if the U.S. determined Harper’s cooperation led to substantial value of benefit, it would ask that Harper be given credit or consideration in connection with any parole commission proceeding. The agreement also included a provision prohibiting the use of any of Harper’s post-arrest statements against him in any civil or administrative proceeding.

Craft stores are cool because they're not cool. It's all a part of the hipster obsession that we're supposed to be embracing or rejecting, depending upon whom you ask.

Crafting is a connection to the past: A time when you needed a scrapbook to catalog your life because it wasn't documented in excruciating detail on Facebook. A time when people cross-stitched "Home Sweet Home" instead of the best after-school special lines from Saved by the Bell.

Crafters have an appreciation for the best of yesteryear, so it's only fitting that one of the largest craft store chains in the country would have a similar fondness for the hottest legal topic of the last year: Affordable Care Act litigation.

The last thing a criminal defendant needs is for a jury to perceive him as "a bad guy." Unfortunately, a defendant charged on drug and firearm counts will likely fall within that cognitive category.

Nonetheless, that risk of prejudice -- by itself -- is not enough to sever charges into separate trials.

Rommie Woodard was convicted of possessing more than 100 kilograms of marijuana with the intent to distribute and sentenced to 60 months' imprisonment and 4 years' supervised release.

Last week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Woodard's conviction, finding that the district court violated his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights when it refused to allow him to cross-examine a witness about a prior judicial determination that the witness was not credible.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified this week that a state Supreme Court's finding of laches is binding on a federal district court in parallel litigation.

In 1942, the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church (FLDS) established United Effort Plan (UEP), a community trust. FLDS followers shared in the assets. In 2005, Utah seized control of UEP, amid allegations of mismanagement by church leaders, including Warren Jeffs, Deseret News reports.

If the definition of insanity is repeating the same action with the expectation of a different result, then the lawyer's definition of insanity is rehashing the same argument before a court with the expectation that you won't be threatened with sanctions.

Courts do not appreciate persistence. And they can back up their annoyance with fines and disbarment.